


And all of that is fine because I love you more than anything else in this world

by Isek



Category: Luke Cage (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:42:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27822460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isek/pseuds/Isek
Summary: She hit him in the face with her hand.It hurt and he was bleeding from where her two rings connected with his face. However, he didn't make a sound or tried to stop her. He knew that if Mariah ever hit him, it was because he deserved it. Or because she simply wanted to cause him pain or to prove how he wouldn't complain or try to defend himself. And that was just fine with him.
Relationships: Shades Alvarez/Mariah Dillard
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

She hit him in the face with her hand.

It hurt and he was bleeding from where her two rings connected with his face. However, he didn't make a sound or tried to stop her. He was used to being hit all the time. First his father when he was young. Then out in the streets and in prison. Besides, this time he deserved it. He wasn't always sure why, but he knew that if Mariah ever hit him, it was because he deserved it. Or because she simply wanted to cause him pain or to prove how he wouldn't complain or try to defend himself. To see how submissive he was to her. And that was just fine with him.

Before he could even begin to apologise she hit him again. And then twice more.

He knew that the following day he would have a bad bruise on his left cheek. Not that anyone would point it out. It was his job to be sure that everything was going well and that everyone was doing their job properly. Sometimes, though, people needed an incentive and he had to make them understand, in a way or another.

Anyway, no one ever questioned him. He was Shades after all. He was always one step behind the person in charge. That meant something.

After she hit him for the fourth time, she stopped and let him explain.

"I'm sorry Mariah. I've acted impulsively, I know" he began. "He was insulting you. I told him to stop, but he didn't. He was saying all kind of things about you and then he began insulting you in Spanish... I don't know, maybe he thought I couldn't understand him, but I could... So I lost my temper and shot him". He finished, before apologising again. "I'm sorry. I'll find a solution. I'll take care of things, please Mariah... forgive me, please".

He didn't care that he was openly begging her at this point.

She was watching him as someone would look at a piece of dirt. But deep down she was touched. He has killed someone just because that someone was insulting her. Her life wasn't even at risk. That wasn't something she would forget soon.

"Fine" Mariah finally said, with a cold tone. She was still very angry. "Of course you'll find a solution. This mess is your fault". She knowingly ignored how actually all of this was her own fault. Shades ignored it too, much to her pleasure.

"Sure Mariah" he said as he was weeping away the blood on his face. He had to admit that it hurt.

Then he noticed the way Mariah was massaging her hand while she sat down on the couch, the one with which she hit him. It looked like it stung and it was covered in his blood.

He entered the kitchen to retrieve some ice and two clean hand towels, one of which he put under some water to wet it. He then went back into the living room, where Mariah was still resting on the couch, now with her eyes closed, he could see that she needed a long bath to wipe away the stress. Therefore, she was surprised when Shades approached her and took her hand. So much that she actually let out a surprised sound when Shades spoke.

"Here Mariah" he said wiping away the blood from her hand. "Let me take care of this". Then he proceeded to remove her rings to be able to fully clean all the blood. After this he took the hand towel with the ice wrapped in it and put it on Mariah's hand. He knew it had to at least sting and he wanted to make sure it wouldn't swell. In his experience, slapping someone with full force didn't come without a price.

Shades then watched her and saw again how very tired she was. He also saw a little bit of remorse in her look, but mostly she needed to rest.

So he went into her own bathroom upstairs and run her a bat. Then he went back downstairs and gently picked her up and carried in her bedroom. He gently undressed her, paying attention not to touch her in her most private parts, since he wasn't sure he had her consent. He wrapped her in a bathrobe and led her to the bathroom. He helped her getting in and helped her wash herself. He was doing it so gently she almost fell asleep.

On her own part, Mariah was enjoying the attention her man was giving her. Even more, she was enjoying how Hernan was taking care of her even after she had hit him. He was so submissive and obedient and that was everything she wanted from her man. So really, Mariah called herself lucky. She also wasn't helping him with the washing and everything. She was being deliberately lazy.

He was now massaging her after having washed away the soap. As soon as he saw Mariah's skin begin to show goosebumps, however, he helped her get out, dried her and put on her pyjamas. What did surprised Mariah was how little water he had gotten on his clothes, which showed how used he was of taking care of someone. Maybe his mother or some relative, she didn't know. Right now, though, she didn't want to ask.

He then started to lead her to her bedroom but she stopped him.

"Sit down Hernan" she said pointing to a small stool she had. "I can't have you going around with blood on your face".

His cut was still bleeding a bit, since he hadn't taken care of it. He had in mind to wait until she went to sleep. He didn't like her watching him while he took care of the wounds she gave him.

"I'm fine, don't worry. Let me put you under the covers and have some sleep while I take care of this".

But she didn't listen to him. She took a hand towel from beside the sink and put it under cold water, before gently begin to wipe away the blood from his cheek and somehow clean his cut.

She was sure she wasn't being as gentle as Hernan had been, but he wasn't complaining or wincing, so she couldn't being hurting him too much. Not that her would show it anyway. Both of them were very aware of this.

After she wiped away the blood, she hugged him and pressed her lips on his neck. He didn't hesitate in hugging her back. He closed his eyes, relieved that he hadn't ruined their relationship and glad that she forgave him. Even if he still had to solve the problem.

Then they kissed gently and she sat in his lap. He hold her there, still caressing and cuddling her, until he saw she was beginning to doze off. He let her fall asleep on him, and then gently got up with her in his arms. He carried her to her bedroom and laid her under the blankets.

He stayed a bit longer, putting away her clothes and putting everything that was around back to their place. He knew that she absolutely hated having things out of place. After that he kissed her gently on her forehead and exited her room and her house.

He put on his shades and was ready for a night of work.


	2. Chapter 2

Mariah woke up only on the following day. She watched the clock on her nightstand and saw it was a quarter to 8 in the morning. Only fifteen minutes before her alarm would go off.

She was going to close her eyes again when she noticed Hernan sitting on one of the armchairs she had in her room. He was fully clothed, but she could tell he had changed from the suit of the previous night. This one had pockets of a slightly different form, she was becoming more and more good at recognising the slightly different suits he had. The shades were in his right hand, which was resting on his leg. By the way his chest was rising and falling, he was sleeping. But he was always been one to wake up at the minimum movement or noise, so as soon as Mariah so much as turned a bit under the covers, he woke up.

Mariah, from the little light that came from behind the closed curtains could see that his cheek was completely black and swollen. Also he looked as he hadn't slept at all, which was probably true. And also her fault.

"Good morning, Mariah" he greeted her with a smile, "Slept well?”

"Actually I did, yeah" she answered. "How about you? It seems like you are coming back from hell!"

"Don't worry, I'm fine. How's your hand?” Mariah couldn't help but feeling the little bit of guilt right now. Here he was, worrying about her, her well-being and her problems. Taking actions to solve everything and doing a damn good job at it too. He had probably slept three hours at best and his cheek surely hurt like hell. But he wasn't showing any of this, putting her before anything else. Putting her before himself as always.

"Fine. My hand is fine. You did a great job yesterday in taking care of it."

She smiled at him and motioned him to come and lay down beside her.

Which he did without complaining or wincing, even though everything was hurting. His night had been long and involved lot of fighting and running. He eventually succeeded in his task, but not before being hit more than he would have liked.

But this was all for Mariah, so it was fine. She deserved the world and he was going to make sure she didn't have to worry about anything else besides formalities and bureaucracy. All the hard work, the physical work, was for him and him only. It was his role after all. She also didn't need to know anything about that hard work, so he had made sure he was presentable before going to her house that morning.

In fact, he hadn't come back before six o’clock that morning. Shades had quickly stopped at his house to have a shower, take care of his new wounds and changing into fresh clothes. He then went to Mariah's and entered straight into her room to check on her. He put back the blankets that she had thrashed in her sleep.

He hadn't intended to fall asleep, but he was so very tired that as soon as he sat in one of her armchairs, his eyes closed and he drifted off. So when he woke was actually a little bit surprised, but he quickly recovered.

As Mariah instructed, he got up and took off his shoes and jacket, before laying on top of the covers, because he knew how she didn't like someone laying under the covers with their clothes on. He understood, as he didn't like it either.

Mariah instantly put her head on his chest and her hand began caressing him on the arm that wasn't hugging her body. With his other hand he was caressing her too, even though he was screaming internally, because he had received a gun wound on the forearm and moving it hurt a lot. But he had taken some painkillers to help him during the day.

As always when they were like this, they began kissing and slowly their passion woke up to, to the point that both of them were feeling very turned on.

But she had something different in mind this time. So she began to get up motioned for Hernan to do the same. She entered the bathroom, were she began running a bath. She instructed him to undress himself, since she wanted to give him some of the care and love he had given her just the previous night.

At this, Hernan flinched internally, because he really didn't want her to see the state his body was in at the moment. He had cuts and bruises forming everywhere. But especially he didn't want her to see the gun wound.

And he didn't want because he knew that she cared about him and seeing him in this state would just make her sad and miserable. She would know that her actions had consequences and that consequences left marks on his body and gave him pain. He knew that she would be heartbroken knowing the real extent to which he pushed himself all the time to fix her mistakes and to give her what she wanted.

But he really didn't have any choice. Whatever Mariah asked of him, he did. He had never told her no and never would. He loved her, cared for her and worshipped her too much to ever refuse her anything that he could give her. And he also knew that if he refused, she would think the worse. Like that he hated her or that he was upset with her, and this would just cause him more troubles later.

Therefore, he quickly recovered from his surprise and began undressing, folding and putting away carefully each piece of clothing. Once he was just in his underwear, because he wasn't sure if he was allowed to be totally naked, as Mariah sometimes didn’t want that, and he learned it the hard way, made his way to the bathroom and waited near the door for the explicit request of entering.

Mariah, while Hernan was undressing, was filling the bath with some warm water and was putting some soaps and bath bombs to make some foam and make the water smell good. She heard him taking all his clothes off and walking to the bathroom, and she knew that she was just waiting by the door to have the explicit signal to enter as to affirm that she had the entire control over the situation.

So, she was totally prepared to turn around and see him in his underwear with his chest and his legs bare.

However, she was totally unprepared to see the state in which his whole body was. She could see every inch of his skin with either a cut or a bruise or both. And she saw the bandage on his forearm, which she was sure was covering a deeper cut or, even worse, a shot wound. She would definitely ask about after she had addressed the general situation.

"What happened to you body?!", Mariah was able to half scream after she collected herself a little bit.

Honestly, Hernan was half hoping that she would just ignore the situation and go on with her plans. But obviously, she had to address it.

"Oh it's the usual. Sometimes, people need some incentives to do as they are told". He answered, coming closer to Mariah to comfort her. He knew that he didn't have explicit consent, but was willing to take the chance so that she didn't get too angry or upset.

When he was just a centimetre away from her, Hernan opened his arms and waited just a bit so that if she didn't want a hug she could refuse. But Mariah didn't, so he closed his arms around her. She relaxed a bit, but he could sense that she was about to start an argument.

"The usual Hernan? Does this happen often?", she paused a second. "Why haven't you said anything about it before?!". She was getting more and more agitated. "Why didn't you say anything to me this morning? I was leaning on you, it must have hurt more than a lot!”

Hernan was trying his best to hug her to calm her down without actually restraining her too much. But she eventually stopped the hug in a forceful way, which did hurt. Even if he didn't show it.

"Hey hey" he said in a calming voice, putting his hand on each shoulder in a delicate way. "Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. I've told you, I deal with this often enough and by now I'm used to it...", he hesitated a little bit, not sure if Mariah was interested in his well-being or if he was just angry because she had been kept in the dark about something, "I'm fine Mariah, really. I'm really used to this, it's fine."

She then looked at him, as if to see the truth in his eyes, which she did. She was really good at reading people, and, while he was very good at hiding everything from people and at showing only the things he wanted to show, Hernan always chose to show Mariah the truth and the truth only.

Therefore, Mariah definitely saw that he was being sincere when he said that he was used receive injuries, but she also saw that he was good at hiding the pain he was in all the time and acting as if he was in perfect shape.

She didn't say anything in response, instead she chose to lead him to the bathtub and motioned him to enter it, which he did without hesitation. Apparently, she didn't want him completely naked. It was fine with him, really.

As soon as his body hit the water, he began to instantly relax. The was water was doing his sore muscles a lot of good. He had only had just a quick shower before coming to Mariah's house, so he hadn’t had the chance to relax.

Hernan was fighting against his eyes, which were very much in favour of closing themselves to sleep. He had to admit that he was pretty tired. But Mariah was still there, so he couldn't fall asleep and ignore her. On her part, she was watching him fighting the battle against his eyes, and he was loosing. She took pity on him, so she massaged him a little bit, for less time than she had previously calculated, but she didn't want him to fall asleep in the bathtub. So Mariah caressed each centimetre of his abdomen, being very careful to not apply too much pressure.

After a while, she instructed him to get up and put on the bathrobe. "Get dry while I go and pick some comfortable clothes for you, so then you can go and get some sleep, Hernan" she said, before kissing him softly.

He closed his eyes, relishing the moment. It wasn't very usual that Mariah showed him this level of affection and love and he was going to appreciate every single minute of it.

He dried as best as he could, even though he could do nothing about his underwear. Mariah was back with a t-shirt, some sweatpants and some underwear. She then promptly left the room, so he dressed himself.

When he went back to Mariah's bedroom she was waiting on the bed. She had a thoughtful look in her eyes, but as soon as she saw him her eyes softened. "Come here, lay down. I want you to sleep. We don't really need to do anything this morning", she smiled. He went to lay down near her, and she immediately snuggled up to him, very careful to not hurt him. She was, but he wasn't about to complain.

"I suppose that I always knew what you were doing on your "missions" Hernan", she began, "I just didn't know how much it costs you, and the way you pay the price.” She stopped.

"I'm happy to pay the price, whatever it is, because I'm doing this for you, for your well-being and to help you fulfil your desires". He then looked at her and closed the little bit of space until they were almost touching on the lips. "I love you Mariah, and I will do everything in my power to keep you happy and safe. You are the most important person I know, you are the most important person between us, and I'll always do everything so that you don't have to. I'll always work in the back while you go out there and shine. It's not the first time I'll have some kind of injury and it won’t be the last, because I'll always protect you and do the hard work.".

He then kissed her softly on her lips, only to look at her in the eyes just a while later. "And all of that is fine because I love you more than anything else in this world.”

Mariah didn't really say anything, but she didn't have to. She would never ask him to stop doing the hard work, she knew it was too important.

So, the only thing she could do was deciding that she would occasionally spend some quiet time with Hernan, some time where for once she would be the one to take care of him and not the opposite. It wouldn't happen too often, of course. She wanted to be taken care of, she liked being on the receiving end more than on the giving one. But she could make some exceptions, like right then.

Therefore, Mariah gave him a soft kiss. "I love you too, Hernan. Now get some sleep, and when we wake up we will have something to eat.”

She kissed him once more and then closed her eyes, while Hernan, who was really struggling to stay awake, had the time to only make one more coherent thought, about how much he was happy that Mariah was showing him such love and affection and care, before falling asleep and sleeping the best sleep since he was a child.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm writing the note only so that you know that English is not my first language, so I apologize if I made some mistakes. I hope you enjoyed this work. Please let me know what you think!!


End file.
